I’m no good at graphic design, and I don’t know anything about symbols. But today, I’d like to share with you an image that has been a picture in my mind for over a couple of decades. Maybe you’ll let it help guide your 2019 health. When I was about 20 years old and far away from home at college, I hit a really hard time in life. I was imprisoned in a deep, disgusting, scary chasm with sides jutting straight up to the sky, and my feet and legs were mired in a bottom of black, sticky muck.
I knew deep in my heart that I would get out of there, that I would pull myself out. I knew I would have a future, a good one. I knew I would make that happen. I had faith in my long-term vision, but on a given day, it was so hard to see past the despairing, dark moment I was living in. Somehow, I observed that when I ate right, slept right, exercised, and prayed, I could deal with the emotional and psychological mess that was my life. But I had to do all those things together.
At that time, sleeping right meant simply that I went to bed at 10 or 11 o’clock at night, and I woke up at 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning, depending on class schedule. No more all-nighters. Eating right meant that I kept my meals to three meals a day contained on a plate, and I sat down to eat them, rather than binging through the kitchen. Exercising meant that I went to a gym and got my heart rate up for 20 minutes a day. And praying meant I talked with God (usually whining or crying or yelling): in my car, before meals, and before bed.
I started to pull out of the dark, sick mess, and I could feel moments of good and happy. With time and persistence (and people willing to help), I left the lowest, stickiest, sickliest point behind. I could look down and see where I had been. And I PROMISED MYSELF I WOULD NEVER GO BACK THERE. Ever. And I haven’t. I won’t.
Since then, the details of what it means for me to “eat right, sleep right, exercise, and pray” have changed, but the fact that I must be diligent to all these areas has not budged one bit. If I hit a stressful point in life now, I think of this image and ask myself if I am doing what I know needs to be done in each area. Usually, I’m being lazy in one of these aspects.
Happy New Year’s Day to you! I wish you the best. You CAN do it! Pull your head out, keep stepping in the right direction, move back in the right direction when you’ve danced off course, and get your life and health where you want them!
Look at your basics. Are you even doing them? If not, DO THEM. Make 2019 the year to be accountable to the basics.
I wish you the best.
Terri F
The HSD 
Happy New Year! Great message and reminder.
Change one “God” to “Gut” and one “Pray” to “Prebiotics” and I’m with you, lol. Check this out:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4265476/
” In line with this scientific paradigm, Panchin et al. [6] posed an interesting question: what if some microbes might subtly manipulate human brain toward certain religious rituals that are beneficial for the propagation of the given microbe(s). They called it the “biomeme hypothesis”. Under this hypothesis microbes do not induce religiosity as such but rather incline individuals toward particular religious rituals. In the concluding remarks the authors suggest that additional types of behavior also might be influenced by microbes but some religious rituals are the best markers of such effects because participation in them provides no apparent benefits to anyone but the hypothetical microbes.”
Oh! Huh! Those gut microbes!
Sounds like the author of this article wasn’t convinced with Panchin’s work: “I conclude that there is no evidence of the microbial origin of religious practices but there are strong indications of their psychological and social roots.” But you have to love all the curiosity and questions they’re all generating!
Have a great year and much success on all your work!
Hi Terri, Thanks for another informative post. My own personal health logo would have looked similar to yours until the last year or so. My own opinion now after reading ‘Lights Out’ and other sleep centered books, is that sleep is the foundation upon which diet and exercise rest. So much takes place while we sleep that make our waking efforts possible and successful. Of course, good diet and exercise, make good sleep more likely too! So, I think of health as a 3 legged stool with diet, exercise, and lifestyle (spirituality, social relationships, work relationships, stress, etc.) being the supports of the stool and sleep being the ground upon which it rests. Uneven ground makes the stool tip over eventually, no matter how strong the legs. My 2 cents.
A stool? Dirt (ground)? Oh, Sal, that’s way cooler than a triangle and circle!!! Seriously! Love that. Man (in the neutral sense of that word), copyright that image.
I’ll take your 2 cents. If I was graphically enabled, I could add color to my image and the triangle would be with ombre, starting with one color of the rainbow and ending with another (but not one color for each line, the color spilling over)–the color of the lines of the triangle fading into the colors of the other lines, to denote that the lines run together and can not be separated. Because if I neglect any of those, I can go on fine for a bit, but I will crash. I still can’t move sleep to the encompassing circle, although maybe in sleep I am actually resting in the encompassing circle. Hmm. Now if I think of the story of Jacob SLEEPING on the GROUND and encountering/wrestling with “an angel.” What does that make me think?
That makes me think, well, fun thinking. But I’d better get to work. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your thoughts, the book you enjoyed, and your graphic image of it all.